more thanksgiving

This past Saturday we invited Jason's family into our home for the Williams' Family Thanksgiving. The last count was 47 people! We were packed in like sardines, but the company and food were good!

The counters were lined with yummy food.

The crowd making their way through.

The dessert table. I didn't have any room for dessert after I devoured my plate of food shown below.

We had pineapple casserole, sweet potato casserole, stuffing, corn pudding, macaroni and cheese, broccoli casserole, turkey, ham, grape salad, lima beans, rolls, and there is probably more that I didn't have room for. Luckily Jason's mom did all the cooking and I only had to do the cleaning!

Some guest ate in the dining room, the living room, the kitchen, and a few braved Jason's garage and ate out there.

Jason's parents bought us this fancy patio heater for guests who wanted to tough the elements. Unfortunately it was a bit too chilly, but we scored a great heater for future gatherings.

I think there were nine great grandchildren there. I only managed to capture Bryce and Chase.

I cleaned ALL day Saturday to get ready for dinner and then cleaned that night after everyone left. Luckily I had a little treat waiting for me in the fridge to help me through my cleaning frenzy!

A wonderful time was had by all, but I'm sure Jason's mom is just as glad as I am that she and her siblings only have to host Thanksgiving every 8 years. I'm passing the torch to Kelly in 2018 so she can share in the fun!

21 months and Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy 21 months B-man!

We headed to NC today to celebrate Thanksgiving with my dad's family. Bryce had a wonderful time playing in the leaves, playing in the dirt and walking down to the pond to see turtles with da-da.

My cousin was there this year with her little girl, Sally Grace. This was the first time Sally and Bryce met. It took her a while to warm up, but they became instant friends! Bryce is 3 months older than her, but I think she may be a good 3 inches taller than him, ha!

Today I am thankful for ALL the things God has blessed me with.

chicken, chicken, turkey

We went to church tonight for the Thanksgiving service and afterwards we enjoyed a variety of desserts. As you can see, Bryce really enjoyed his cupcake!

After eating, Bryce was very interested in playing with the big kids. I went over with him and they invited him into their game, "Chicken, Chicken, Turkey". The Thanksgiving rendition of "Duck, Duck, Goose", HA!

They all wanted him to give them five!

We've had another great weekend and I couldn't be happier that this is only a two and a half day work week!

catching up and clearning off memory cards

I've gotten better about snapping pictures of Bryce everyday, but not much better at posting them! Here is my attempt to catch up on the past few days. Nanny is in town and she spent the evening with us on Saturday night.

We got ice cream after lunch on Sunday. YUM!

This is how Bryce feels about Macy kisses!

Bryce's new favorite thing is looking at pictures on the computer. He climbs right up in my chair and watches the pictures scroll across on the screen saver. His commentary is quite entertaining.

The effects of a blue lollipop!

ho ho ho

We headed to Bass Pro Shop tonight for dinner and a chance to sit on Santa's lap. Bryce has been looking forward to it all week and we've been talking it up and practicing what he was going to say. After dinner we did a little arts and crafts and then we were off to see Santa.

Bryce's excitement quickly vanished when he realized who Santa really was, ha! He cried for the pictures, but we were able to get him to calm down and talk to Santa. He was going to tell him, "My want a football helmet, please". He ended up saying, "My want a present, please". He also asked him for candy corn, ha! I think he meant candy cane, as that was what we were using for bribery for him to talk to Santa!

You may enjoy THIS flashback from last year!

Regaining his "manliness" after losing it with Santa!

We're getting a little better with the group picture!

ashland train day

Jason and I took Bryce and Chase up to Ashland this morning for Train Day. They were very excited about it, but neither were excited about riding the miniature train around the streets. We asked both boys a few times if they wanted to ride and each time they answered with a firm "NO". So we didn't ride any trains, but we saw a real train drive through town and they played with some toy trains!

Here we are in Ashland "The Center of the Universe".

This is how our picture taking went. They both said cheese, but would never look at the camera. The sun was bright so as you can see, Bryce looked away form the camera and Chase posed nicely, but had to close his eyes to block the sun!

The real train coming down the tracks.

Eating a snack while we waited and watched the train.

They had some other fun things set up for the kids to do.

football

We braved the cold and went out for a little football tonight. This year I have the sister of a boy I taught my first year. He is a freshman this year and he plays on the JV football team. His sister is always telling me when they have home games and I never remember or we're always busy. Tonight was their last home game so we went and watched for a little while. Luckily Bryce and I were free so it only cost us $5 for 25 minutes of fun! Turned out they were playing our alma mater (Atlee High School) which is their big rivalry, so it was a good game. The only football Bryce knows is Virginia Tech so he said, "GO HOKIES" a few times!

wordless wednesday

relaxing evening

Tonight was a nice stay at home and relax kind of night. We had dinner at home and then we watched tv and played until bedtime. Bryce has decided that the laundry sorter makes for a good basketball hoop.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to get tired of taking the toys out of the laundry basket every morning and night. Oh wait.....this is only day 1 of the new game and I'm already not liking it, ha!

Hope everyone had a happy Monday! I'm always excited to see Monday go because it is my day of the week that I don't have a break at school and it just makes for a LONG day. We're headed out to the farm for pizza tomorrow to visit Nana, Pap, and Nanny.

where did the weekend go?

Here it is Sunday night again and I'm dreading heading back to work tomorrow. I just wish I could spend more time with Bryce. Something about his soft sweet voice and the adorable things he says makes me want to be with him ALL day long! We went to Home Depot tonight and as we were walking in he said/asked, "They have Christmas here, Mama?" He saw the Christmas trees and all he knew to call it was Christmas. It was too stinking cute. Much like he is in the toy box below. We did some toy rearranging this weekend and got some new toy boxes and he had a blast filling them up and putting them in different rooms in the house.

I've been playing around with the manual setting of the camera lately, but I don't seem to be getting any better. I have said this from the beginning, but I feel like an expensive camera should always take good pictures. I like the above picture because it is a lot brighter, but it's just not that focused.

Jason is downstairs hanging my dining room curtains that I had made. I'm so excited and can't wait to see the finished product. Maybe one day I'll even blog about them, ha! And I just wanted to give a great big CONGRATULATIONS to our friends Grant and Brittany who are having a baby in June. YAY! Looks like we're going to Nashville this summer!!

Jesus Love Me

I do apologize for the poor filming skills!